Flash drives, unfortunately, attract viruses and threats that can disable our computer systems in no time. Data can be compromised or corrupted at any given point. A way to prevent losing data is to move it to an external hard drive or some form of external storage device. USBs are one such device. However, they are prone to getting viruses and even spreading to your PC and other computers. You’ll want to take the necessary precautions to protect your USB (flash drive) and computer from such viruses and threats.
How To Keep Secured Against Viruses and Threats
Flash drives are a great way to transfer files and other data from one device to another. However, they are vulnerable to viruses and threats that can disrupt entire computer systems. Despite this, they are still a great tool to use and relatively inexpensive. You may want to consider buying flash drives wholesale especially if you go through a lot of them at a time. This is also a great idea if you’re a large company and you want to give several employees company flash drives. Whether you’re an individual or a sizable company these tips on how to keep your flash drives secured can be very useful.
1.Be aware of your online behavior – your online behavior can greatly affect your computer system and by extension open your flash drive up to viruses. Be careful of opening unknown emails as they can be a form of malware. You also want to be careful of what you download and the links that you use online. All of these things are getaways to all forms of malware gaining access to your system which you can transfer to other systems via your flash drive. You want to be very careful in this area.
2. Scan your computer with antivirus software regularly – a way to prevent these various forms of malware is to scan your computer with antivirus software regularly. These regular scans can help you detect any issues before they have the chance to spread. If you can catch them early enough you may be able to stop irreparable damage from happening.
3. Scan your USB before transferring data – scanning your USB before transferring data works in the same way as scanning your computer regularly. Scanning before transferring can stop malicious content from transferring from your flash drive to your computer. It’s best that you do this each and every time to prevent threats from going undetected. It’s best that you don’t put your guard down in this regard.
4. Identify all of the transferring files – identify all of the files being transferred. Take your time and avoid transferring in bulk as threats can be hidden in zip files that you’ll miss when you transfer a lot of files at one time. Make sure you know which files you are transferring to your computer system and why to avoid unintentionally sending something harmful. This is something you want to do every time you transfer files. Knowing what you’re sending to your computer can save you a lot in terms of protecting your data.
5. Use formatting to wipe your flash drive – if your flash drive happens to get infected you can use formatting to wipe the flash drive. This will completely wipe your flash drive clean and with it removing all of the harmful files. The issue with using this method is if there are important files on the flash drive you’ll end up wiping them as well. This is why you should save important files on more than one device. If you can spare to have the data removed then formatting will remove the threat and allow you to continue using your USB device.
6. Use an antivirus portable application – you can install this portable application on your USB device. It will scan your device and whatever PC you plug it into. This will act as another form of security. It will help you protect your device against threats from the PCs you may need to use it with. There are a number of these applications available and they are a useful tool when needed to transfer files to multiple devices.
Hopefully, you find this information useful. If you have access to an IT team they can also help you to learn and understand the best ways to use and keep your flash drives secured and safe from viruses and threats. Use all of the available resources to you as having your system fail because of threats and attacks can be a virtual nightmare.
Featured Photo by Anete Lusina